Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Today's interesting political news and conservative comment

Time to start your Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice
shopping. What better choice than one of my books, especially since all the
royalties go to charity, not me, which will impress the giftee. There's
something here for everyone, including 'tweens and teens. The charities include
the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, the
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and for my management book, Chaos for Breakfast, the Orthopaedic
Research and Education Foundation and ASAE Foundation.

I checked that story about the FENCER spoofing the
electronics on USS Cole. Not true. Yes, there were several provocative passes
made by the unarmed fighter, but no EMP or cyber magic. It is Russian
disinformation that is being spread by folks without the straight word. You
might want to print a change -- you can use my name, of course, if you want to.
Ever, Chet Nagle. (Sorry. Used a forward. Readers may recall that Chet is a
blog reader/contributor, a Naval Aviator and former CIA Agent in the Middle East, and author of great thriller novels. ~Bob.

Excerpt: This lengthy video was posted nearly two years ago,
but has gone viral in honor of Veterans Day. World War II veteran Vince
Speranza retells the intriguing story when he served in Bastogne, France
fighting the Nazis. While helping tend to the wounded, he was asked by a hurt
soldier for a drink. Incredibly, he found a broken down tavern nearby that had
beer on the tap still. With no glasses or bottles around, he used his helmet to
carry the beer to his friends. He never imagined that his beer serving
technique would become a European legend later in life. (My father was
part of this. His story about averting frostbite was to plunge their toes into
steaming manure. He returned with all his digits intact. Best
regards, Larry Greenberg. If only they'd been in DC, could have saved all
their toes. ~Bob)

Excerpt: In an FBI evidence room of sorts in Green Bay, you’ll find
legitimate looking military awards and uniforms taken from impostors. “When you
consider the sacrifice made over the years particularly with our combat vets,
many of those who never returned home, the notion that this somehow is not a
victim less crime is absurd,” said FBI agent Jerry Mullen. Some of the evidence
is almost comical such as phony diplomas from elite training courses.

Excerpt: That law requires telecommunications companies to
pay into the FCC’s “Universal Service Fund” -- and would likely require the
same of Internet companies. But O'Reilly says history clearly shows that the
fees would quickly be “passed off” to customers, just like they are now on
monthly phone bills. “Consumers of these services would face an immediate
increase in their Internet bills,” O'Reilly
said Friday during the seminar held by the non-partisan Free
State Foundation."

Excerpt: It is starting to look like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
(R) isn’t going to jump into the presidential race. In addition to opining that
you have to be “crazy” to run for president, he is quoted as saying, politicians “should run for president not
because they want to be or yearn to be, but because they feel called to. Right
now, I still feel called to be the governor of the state of Wisconsin, and I’m going to do the best job
I can over the next four years.”

Excerpt: As outrage has mounted this fall over the National
Football League’s handling of domestic abuse cases, the primary focus has been
on questions of policy and punishment. Little has been heard from the victims,
in part because they often recant their accusations and stay with their
partners. But in interviews with The New York Times, two women who left their
husbands — Ms. Sands and Brandie Underwood, who was married to a Green Bay
Packers player — described abusive relationships in which they felt trapped, in
part because of each team’s close-knit culture and a protocol that emphasized
avoiding disruptions.

New CBO study shows
that ‘the rich’ don’t just pay their ‘fair share,’ they pay almost everybody’s
share

Excerpt: Some additional analysis and commentary will be
provided here that reveal a yet-to-be discussed major implication of the CBO
report – almost the entire burden: a) of all transfer payments made to American
households and b) of all non-financed government spending, falls on just one
group of Americans – the top one-fifth of US households by income. That’s
correct, the CBO study shows that the bottom three income quintiles representing
60% of US households are “net recipients” (they receive more in transfer
payments than they pay in federal taxes), the second-highest income quintile
pays just slightly more in federal taxes ($14,800) than it receives in
government transfer payments ($14,100), while the top 20% of American “net
payer” households finance 100% of the transfer payments to the bottom 60%, as
well as almost 100% of the tax revenue collected to run the federal government.
Here are the details of that analysis. (Funny thing about the greedy rich. The
late Sam Johnson, of the Johnson Wax fortune and one of the 100 wealthiest men
on earth when he died, lived down the road from me. (Which says something about
his modest tastes). He never tried to force me to buy his products. He didn't
have guys with guns and badges who could take away my money, or my home, if I
didn't do what he said, or buy stuff I didn't like, want or need. Last winter,
his widow sponsored a mildly controversial building project in our little
village. She showed up in person at the public hearing in our little village
hall to make her case. Not bad for an 80+ gal, on a below zero night. She could
have stayed home in her mansion and sent a high-priced lawyer. Enough about the
greedy rich. They are paying your taxes. --Tom H.)

Excerpt: The last but long gasp of the Obama administration
is characterized not so much by deceit and incompetence as by growing chaos.
Everything appears to be coming apart. The chariot of state now veers up and
down with a terrified Phaethon clueless at the reins. Whether it is ISIS,
Ebola, Putin, or Obamacare, the common strain is not simple incompetence, but a
maladroitness born of intolerant ideological fundamentalism. Have our
government agencies ever seemed more corrupt or useless or both, staffed by
political cronies and leftist zealots?

Cute Video: Little Girl Joins Santa Claus For
Breakfast, Because She Doesn't Want Him 'Eating All By Himself'

Excerpt: Gracie Wilson stopped at Bob Evans restaurant with
her family for breakfast on Monday while visiting her grandparents in Evansville, Indiana.
The 3-year-old ended up getting seated at a table next to a very important man
with a long white beard and red suspenders, who was eating alone.

Excerpt: A new report from State Budget Solutions finds that
state-level public pension plans are underfunded by a staggering $4.7 trillion
as of 2014. Were one to apportion that unfunded liability out among the
country, it would equal more than $15,000 per person. Which states are in the
worst shape? According to State Budget Solutions' Joe Luppino-Esposito, California has a $754
billion unfunded liability -- the highest among the 50 states. In second place
is Illinois ($331.6 billion), followed by New York ($307.9 billion) and Texas ($296 billion).

Excerpt: Similarly, Orwell questioned his own farsightedness
as a commentator on martial affairs. “One way of feeling infallible is not to
keep a diary,” he observed wryly, and his prognostications from 1940-1941
proved it. Yet “…I was not so wrong as the Military Experts. Experts of various
schools were telling us in 1939 that the Maginot Line was impregnable, and that
the Russo-German Pact had put an end to Hitler’s eastwards expansion; in early
1940 they were telling us that the days of tank warfare were over; in mid 1940
they were telling us that the Germans would invade Britain forthwith; in mid
1941 that the Red army would fold up in six weeks; in December 1941, that Japan
would collapse after ninety days; in July 1942, that Egypt was lost and so on,
more or less indefinitely.” “Where now,” he asked rhetorically, “are the men
who told us those things? Still on the job, drawing fat salaries. Instead of
the unsinkable battleship we have the unsinkable Military Expert….” Such
counsel of humility is worthwhile for any group of aspiring military experts.
Complacency kills.

Excerpt: Obama is doing precisely what he promised during
his 2008 presidential campaign, to cheering and mesmerized crowds: “We are
going to fundamentally change America”
and “We will change America.
We will change the world.” Obama is living up to those pledges by subverting
our Constitution and adopting the political style of a banana republic
dictator. He showed his willingness to ignore the Constitution when he
eliminated the work requirement in welfare reform laws enacted during the Clinton administration.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare,
was enacted by Congress and hence is the law of the land. Obama has used
executive orders to change the law on several occasions. Ask yourself whether
our Constitution permits the president to unilaterally change a law enacted by
Congress. For a president to do so is for him to behave like a banana republic
dictator.

Excerpt: The discontent with Nancy Pelosi is breaking out in
the open. Democrats in the House have quietly grumbled about Pelosi since
suffering devastating losses on Election Day, but there is a growing number of
members willing to go public on their party leaders. (Pass the popcorn! ~Bob)

Excerpt: Could it be because more Americans than ever before
have gotten their concealed carry permits, especially women? I don’t consider
that a coincidence. The FBI released Crime in the United States, 2013 today,
which shows that the estimated number of violent crimes in 2013 decreased 4.4
percent when compared with 2012 figures, and the estimated number of property
crimes decreased 4.1 percent

Excerpt: When Martin Salia’s Ebola test came back negative,
his friends and colleagues threw their arms around him. They shook his hand.
They patted him on the back. They removed their protective gear and cried.
(Everything's fine, until it isn't. Ebola may not be the biggest threat, but
clearly, yet again, 'but we know better' has failed us, and 'I'm sorry you got
infected' just isn't good enough. --George)

Excerpt: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said
there were "phrases that serve as an excuse for not thinking." One of
these phrases that substitute for thought today is one that depicts the current
problems of blacks in America
as "a legacy of slavery."

Excerpt: Muslim groups have stepped up efforts to co-opt
protests over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.,
with a drive to equate the teen’s death to the death of a radical Islamist shot
during an FBI raid in 2009, a Washington-based security watchdog group is
warning. Using social media, conference calling and traditional outreach
methods, leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are
portraying Brown and Detroit mosque
leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah as African-American victims of police
targeting, according to the Washington-based Center for Security Policy (CSP).
In a conference call organized by CAIR-linked "Muslims for Ferguson, a
CAIR official called Abdullah a “Shaheed,” or martyr, and said both he and
Brown were victims of a national security apparatus that had “completely gone
wild” and engaged in “demonizing and criminalizing Muslims.”

Excerpt: Protesters anxiously awaiting the St. Louis grand
jury decision relating to the shooting death of 18-year-old Mike Brown have
been training activists all weekend in preparation for the day the grand jury
makes an announcement about whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren
Wilson for Brown’s death. ... And I also think we’re not going to get change in
this society unless white people are just a little bit afraid.

Excerpt: As the nation waits to hear whether a Missouri
police officer will face charges for killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown
in Ferguson, Mo., the FBI is warning law enforcement agencies across the
country that the
decision “will likely” lead some extremist protesters to threaten and
even attack police officers or federal agents. (There are many astounding
aspects of modern American life, but a big one is certain people’s willingness
to riot, driven by their intense, deep-rooted belief that they know
exactly what happened in a sequence of events they did not witness. -- Jim
Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Obama Met With Ferguson Activists –
Said He’s Concerned They “Stay on Course”

Excerpt: Some of the national leaders met with President
Obama on Nov. 5 for a gathering that included a conversation about Ferguson. According
to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has appeared frequently in St.
Louis with the Brown family and delivered a speech at Mr.
Brown’s funeral, Mr. Obama “was concerned about Ferguson staying on course in terms of
pursuing what it was that he knew we were advocating.

It just doesn't stop. Another video of MIT professor and
ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber is out. This time, he explains that Barack
Obama sought Gruber's assistance telling lies to obfuscate their so-called
Cadillac tax on premium health plans: "The problem is it's a political
nightmare, and people say, 'No, you can't tax my benefits.' ... So what we did
a lot in that room was think a lot about, well, how could we make this work?
... And [Obama] is really a realistic guy. He was like, 'Look, I can't just do
this.' He said, 'It's just not going to happen politically. The bill will not
pass. How do we manage to get there through phase-ins and other things?' And we
talked about it. He was just very interested in that topic." And that's
just part of how Gruber managed to rake in nearly $6 million doling out health care policy advice --
often specifically
to Barack Obama. Not bad for a guy who Obama says was
"never on our staff" and had a bunch of opinions "that I
completely disagree with." Where do we sign up for that gig?

Excerpt: President Obama said in 2006 that he had stolen
ideas "liberally" from the professor under fire for saying voter
“stupidity” aided ObamaCare’s passage.

Video unearthed by the conservative Washington Free
Beacon Mondayshowed Obama praising Jonathan Gruber and other liberal
policy experts as some of the "brightest minds" in academia. (I keep
wondering if his memory is really that bad, or he's just that ready to lie like
a rug at any time, no matter how much evidence he knows exists about the real
facts. --Del.Chicago Pol. They never forget. go with lying.
~Bob)

Excerpt: Vermont
Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning is calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to
terminate the contract of Jonathan Gruber following the release of videos
showing the MIT professor intentionally deceived the public in drafting the
Affordable Care Act. ... According to the contract obtained from the Agency of
Administration, Vermont
is paying Gruber $400,000 for “policy expertise, research, and economic
modeling related to the implementation of Green Mountain Care.” Gruber’s work
will be presented to the Legislature on Jan. 15.

Excerpt: National Journal writer Ron Fournier has long been
a supporter of ObamaCare. But Jonathan Gruber’s inconvenient disclosures have
made Fournier almost see a ray of light. “The problem is the central attribute
you have to have as any leader, in any walk of life and certainly in government
is trust,” Fournier said. “This president has destroyed the credibility of his
administration himself and government itself.” We couldn’t have said it better.
And for Fournier and his cohorts, that’s a huge problem – because they want Big
Government to have credibility. (Well, to be fair, Mao, Stalin, Hitler and
Pol Pot, among others, also destroyed the credibility of Big Government--not
that progressives noticed. ~Bob)

Excerpt: President Obama has a tough decision to make on the
timing of an executive order to freeze deportations of illegal immigrants. Senate
Democrats want him to wait to give them time to pass an omnibus spending bill
and other legislative priorities in the lame-duck session that is just now
ramping up. But delaying the action, even for a few weeks, could make Obama
look weak and inflame immigration advocates who are already furious with him
for holding back until after the midterm elections.

Excerpt: The letter makes the case that bringing all these
people out of the shadows will be good for the economy, and that Obama has
broad authority to act to improve the immigration system for the good of the
country where he can — framing the message that Democrats hope to unify behind
when this battle heats up. That suggests top Democrats will have Obama’s back.
But it also raises a question: What happens if a half dozen Senate Dems defect
and side with the GOP against Obama’s executive deportation relief?

Excerpt: President Obama’s expected action lifting the
threat of deportation from millions of undocumented immigrants, which could
come as early as this week, will expand the authority of the executive branch
into murky, uncharted territory.

The unaccompanied minors enrolling in HISD this fall
represents an increase of over 1,000 students per month. ... That number was
based upon an estimated 4,800 foreign minors that were reportedly set free
in Texas.
...Using the number provided by the TEA, the estimated cost to HISD taxpayers
would be over $28 million for the 3,000 unaccompanied minors now enrolled in
the district.

"You're Greener than Gore" News

What the mainstream
media won't tell you about global warming. By Jeff Dunetz

Excerpt: Between the recent “deal” with China, reports of Obama
taking climate action via executive fiat, and the debate over
keystone, global warming has been over the mainstream media recently. But
instead of debating whether or not the global warming hypotheses is a valid threat
to the Earth, the media starts with the premise that the theory is real and
anybody who contests global warming is the equivalent of people who don’t
believe the holocaust actually happened, they are called deniers. The “LA
Times” refuses to print letters that disagree with global
warming, CNN openly mocks them on air, the NY Times ran a cartoon suggesting climate change skeptics
should be stabbed to death, and MSNBC and CBS only interview climate
change believers on their programs. (Will the earth start warming someday to a
significant degree? Certainly possible and actually probable. Due to human
beings? Not by any rationale based on facts and hard data that anyone has put
up so far. Is there some kind of overwhelming consensus among qualified
scientists? No way at all, even if science worked on consensus, which it
absolutely does not. Will trying to rein in CO2 generation by stopping burning
of fuels as much as remotely possible actually do any good? No, absolutely not,
even if the hypothesis about warming were correct. Will it do economic harm to
the USA,
while just making more millionaires out of the people who are already set up to
play the system? Yes on both counts. Can all the alternate energy generation
schemes really supplant a large fraction of energy generation by burning fuel? No,
plus there are downsides to these plans (lots of dead birds already), and they
cannot produce energy continuously so the system has to have enough backup from
conventional energy generation to cover all needs anyhow. But enough of mere
facts and logic......Del)

Buffalo, N.Y., area in the midst of a truly insane lake
effect snow storm

Excerpt: The National Weather Service has reported that
one part of Cheetowaga, N.Y.,
has accumulated 51 inches of snow thus far, while on the other side of town,
only two inches has been measured, illustrating the incredible snowfall
gradient that the Buffalo
area is experiencing today. ... Around 70 inches of snow is expected in the
heaviest bands through at least Thursday. The week’s totals will
undoubtedly rival the all-time snowfall record for Buffalo, which was 81.6 inches over the
course of five days in 2001.

Excerpt: Two Palestinians armed with knives, axes and a gun
stormed a synagogue in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood on Tuesday, killing
three Americans — including a prominent rabbi — and a British worshiper in one
of the deadliest attacks in years in Jerusalem. (If the dead Americans were
black, Hispanic or gay, Obama would have troops already on the way to punish
Hamas. Jews? No big deal. ~Bob)

Excerpt: In a statement delivered to the White
House press pool, President Obama responded to the attack by declaring that
"too many Palestinians have died," as well as Israelis, in the
struggle between the state of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas and its
affiliates, including the internationally active Muslim Brotherhood. "At
this difficult time," the President told reports, "I think it's
important for both Palestinians and Israelis to try to work together to lower
tensions and reject violence." (Peace, yeah, just like
between blacks and whites in theUS....and that "keep them on course"
inFergusonremark
to Sharpton. Four Jews killed--3 US, 1 British--and 2 terrorists shot and
killed. --Barb. If they would STOP attacking Israelis, Israel would
STOP killing them. Duh. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The recent spike in Palestinian terrorist attacks
targeting Israelis throughout the country occur amid growing incitement to
violence and glorification of terrorism emanating from Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials and institutions. Tuesday's heinous attack on a Jerusalem synagogue was the "direct result" of that campaign, said Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Excerpt: The brutal killings of four worshippers – including
three Americans – in a Jerusalem synagogue
Tuesday by two Palestinians wielding meat cleavers and a gun appears to be a
lone-wolf attack, Israel’s
national police commissioner says.

The violence was met with celebration from Palestinians, as
revelers in the Gazan city of Rafah handed out
candy and brandished axes and posters of the suspects in praise of the deadly
attack, according to the Jerusalem Post. Hamas-affiliated social
media also circulated violent and anti-Semitic cartoons hailing the killings.

Excerpt: Israeli political leaders are blaming Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting Tuesday's bloody terrorist attack inside a Jerusalem synagogue that
killed four people and injured eight others. The two terrorists, who carried
axes and a gun, also were killed in a shootout with police.

On Tuesday, four Jews, including three Americans and a
British citizen, were murdered in Jerusalem’s
Har Nof neighborhood while praying at synagogue. The murderers: Palestinian
Muslims shouting “Allahu Akhbar” as they attacked the worshipers with machetes
and a pistol....... That’s because the West refuses to see the truth about
the Muslim war on Israel and
the United States:
it is a religious war for our enemies. (Graphic, to the point photo.
--Barb)

Sheer Depravity; As
the victims of this morning's massacre at a Jerusalem synagogue are laid to rest,
more details emerge of the horrific killing-spree.

Excerpt: (Warning: Graphic photos) "Two people came out
with their faces half missing, looking like they'd been attacked with
knives."... Fighting back tears, Moshe Eliezer said he had narrowly
avoided being at the scene after oversleeping.... "Inside the synagogue
some people were wounded by gunshots, others had chopped off limbs caused by a
meat cleaver," he said.

Excerpt: Yossi Dagan, the head of media relations for
the Samaria Regional Council, filed a formal
complaint Tuesday with the Government Press Office (GPO) against
a CNN reporter for equating the terrorists involved in the with
the victims. According to Dagan, American CNN reporter Ben Wedeman
was responsible for the headline describing the massacre under the headline,
"Israeli police shot dead two Palestinian civilians" - when, in fact,
the shooters were Palestinian terrorists who killed four Jews and wounded eight
others as they prayed the morning service before being killed in a gun battle
with police. Dagan charged that the headline was a serious violation of
international journalism ethics, and called to revoke Wedeman's press license
and, generally, bring anti-Semitic coverage of terror attacks by
foreign journalists to an end - permanently. (Reporters or columnists
rarely write the headlines on their pieces. I have been slammed for headlines
on my columns written by the paper. ~Bob)

American victims of
synagogue attack in Jerusalem
include rabbi from ‘family of princes

Excerpt: Mosheh Twersky was the descendant of giants. His
father, Rabbi Isadore Twersky, established Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies.
His grandfather was even more influential: Joseph Soloveitchik, modern
Judaism’s most towering philosopher. Soloveitchik founded the MaimonidesSchool,
a Jewish day school outside Boston.

The EU’s New Nuremberg Laws: Full document of EU-proposed sanctions
against Israel

Excerpt: Europe galvanizing
against the Jewish people. It’s like …. they can’t help themselves. They always
revert back …. Europe’s new Jew-hatred is the
same as the old. Does Europe really believe
that this will sedate their restive Muslim populations? They have no
idea what’s coming. On a side note, of course the notorious Jewidical
Haaretz got a copy of the “sanctions” — like the kapos and Jewish Councils did
the dirty work of the Reich.

Excerpt: Sweden
is arguably the most "European" of European countries by virtue of
its historically cohesive nationhood ("one big family"), militaristic
and socialist legacies, untrammeled immigration, unmatched political
correctness, and a supercilious claim to the status of a "moral
superpower." These features also make it perhaps the most alien of
European countries to an American conservative.

Excerpt: The Balkan war of 1912 was fought not only by Serbs
but by Montenegrins, Bulgarians, and Greeks to liberate their people from
centuries of uninterrupted Islamic aggression. The situation is little changed
today. To understand Kosovo, the American people need to compare the current
Balkan crisis with its own American Civil War in which just 4% of the
population lost their lives compared to Serbia who lost 52% of her adult
male population in WWI and another 26% of her overall population in WWII.
Readers of this forum need reminding that during the American Civil War it was
the loyal Virginia citizens who refused to
secede from the union and formed the state of West Virginia in 1863. Certainly Serbs
deserve the same rights to remain in their union, a union which was
internationally recognized as a nation in 1878 at the Congress of Berlin. Not a
single head of state, nor any American president, senator, or humanitarian
group raised their voices as 200,000 Serbs were “ethnically cleansed” from
Kosovo in the last 2 decades. People should be asking, why are the Serbs
destined to suffer and be persecuted?

Excerpt: What the bleep is wrong with these American mothers
of ISIS beheadees? The mom of Peter
Kassig a/k/a Abdul Rahman Kassig–newly separated from his head–is praising Allah as “the one god” and saying he “will prevail.” (This
couple are redefining "way out there". I cannot believe they can
actually do or say any of this, but they did. This is some form of mental
maladjustment, and seriously so. Normally I think that Schlussel is a little
too zingy for my taste, but I look at these parents of a murdered man, who
was there helping refugee Muslims, and just cannot comprehend this kind of
response at all. --Del)

Excerpt: A Saudi groom has divorced his bride on their
wedding night after seeing her face for the first time when the photographer
asked them to pose for pictures. The couple, from the Western Saudi town of Medinah, had agreed to
marry each other despite having not met face to face - a popular custom in
certain Middle Eastern countries. But when the bride removed her veil and
smiled for the camera, her new husband leapt to his feet in disgust.

Excerpt: They said Pervaiz had surrendered to police and
produced the knife he had used to kill her. Police said a case had been
registered against him on the complaint of his wife.

Pervaiz said he had
no remorse. He said he had been compelled to kill her as she wanted to
marry for love. A forensic surgeon at MayoHospital
said the deceased had been stabbed in the stomach, chest and shoulders. He said
the body had been returned to the family of the deceased for burial. (The
wife is probably next. ~Bob)

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five
terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.
http://tiny.cc/g02s4 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at
tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tinyurl.com/o4nu65u. His blog of
political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.